Prison psychiatry: Part 2 – clinical and legal issues

As a prison
psychiatrist, you play a key role in the assessment and management
of prisoners with a range of diagnoses. This experience can be a
satisfying part of working in prison, as it helps you maintain a
range of clinical skills.

It is likely that the prisoners under your
care also suffer from particularly poor physical health, and as a
psychiatrist you can significantly improve prisoners' health
outcomes. Prison is where you may learn about interesting abuses of
psychotropic medications, as well as everything you never knew you
needed to know about illicit drugs.

Finally, working in prison requires a good
grasp of mental health law, whether through ensuring prisoners
lacking capacity are appropriately treated, or transferring
prisoners to secure hospital beds when needed.

This module will examine psychiatric
specialties, physical health and prescribing in prisons, and mental
health legislation in prison. If you have not completed Prison psychiatry: Part 1 – mental health in
prisons, it is recommended you do this before continuing
as Part 2 builds on the content of the previous module; however,
this is not essential.